A DECREE OF starchamber: Concerning Inmates, and divided Tenements, in London or three miles about:  
Made the fourteenth of February last past. 1636.  
Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent majesty: And by the assigns of John Bill. 1636.   

dieu ET MON DROIT HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE  royal blazon surmounted by a crown and lion and flanked by the English lion on one side and the Scottish unicorn on the other   

In Camera Stellata coram Concilio ibidem, decimo quarto die Februarij, Anno duodecimo CAROLI Regis.  
THis day was produced in Court a Decree drawn and penned, by the advice of the Right Honourable the Lord Keeper the Lord privy seal, the two Lords chief Iustices, the Lord chief Baron, and the rest of the Judges of His majesties Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas, and Court of Exchequer, touching Jnmates, and divided Tenements, and the same being red in Court, and well liked of by all the Honourable presence there sitting, the said Decree was directed and ordered to be here recorded: and to the end the same may be public, and that every one whom it may concern may take notice thereof; The Court hath now also ordered, that the said Decree shall be speedily Printed, and that the same he sent to His majesties Printer for that purpose.   

In Camera Stellata coram Concilio ibidem, decimo quarto die Februarij, Anno duodecimo CAROLI Regis.  
WHereas by a Decree made in this Honourable Court, the twentieth day of October, in the fortieth year of the reign of our late sovereign Lady queen ELIZABETH, vpon the information of Her majesties then attorney general, against Rice Griffith, and John Scrips,( who contrary to the Proclamation published and set out the seventh day of july, in the two and twentieth year of Her majesties reign, had erected and built Tenements, and divided them into several rooms, wherein diuers poor Tenants dwelled, that lived and were maintained by the relief of the Parish, and begged abroad in other place) the said offenders were sentenced. And as for the pulling down or reforming of any House new built or divided contrary to the said Proclamation within the city of London, or the compass of three miles thereof,( in which any poor or impotent persons then did, or thereafter should dwell or abide) for that if the same houses should bee pulled down, destroyed or reformed, other habitations must bee provided for them at the charge of the Parishes where they were or should be dwelling; The Court did think fit to forbear and respite the doing therof, but did order and adjudge, that all and every such poor and impotent persons, which did or should dwell and inhabit in any new buildings or divided tenements, erected and divided contrary to the effect and intent of her Highnes said Proclamation, and were or should in any wise be driven to live by begging, or to bee relieved by alms within the city of London, or any other place within the compass of three miles thereof, should, and might, during the time of his or their life or lives, abide and dwell in the same, without giuing or paying any manner of rent, service, or other recompense unto the Landlords or any other, for, or in respect of the same, and not bee thence removed, unless they should after become able to live of themselves; and that the said Landlord, Owner, or any other that claimed interest, to, or for any rent or rents, growing, arising, or payable for any of the said new buildings, or divided Tenements so inhabited, or to be inhabited with poor people as aforesaid, should be enjoined, and vpon that sentence and Decree take sufficient notice and warning, that he or they should not implead, encumber, disquiet, or molest any of the said poor Tenants, for any Rents, covenants, Conditions, Promises, or Agreements, touching, or in any wise concerning the said Tenements, new buildings, or any of them, for the levying, or recovering of any rent, service, or other consideration in lieu of any rent.  
And for that the new buildings and divisions of sundry houses within the city of London and three miles compass thereof, contrary to the tenor of the said Proclamation, had been, and was occasion of great charges unto the Parishes of the said city and Precinct aforesaid, whereby the said Parishes were still overmuch burdened with poor and impotent perfons; It was therefore ordered and decreed, that all such Landlords, or Owners of such buildings or divisions, wheresoever they should dwell, should contribute and give such like rateable and reasonable allowance with the said Parishioners, where such buildings and divisions were, towards the finding and maintaining of the poor of the Parish, in which such buildings were, or should bee erected or divided, contrary to the said Proclamation, as should bee apportioned and allotted him of them to pay, if he or they were dwelling in the said parish.  
And it was further ordered and decreed, that after the death or departure of such poor people, as did, or should inhabit the same houses or divided Tenements aforesaid, the houses thereby being become void; Then the Lord Maior, and Iustices of Peace near unto the city adjoining, thereby were commanded to reform the said divided Tenements, and to prostrate, pull down, and deface the said new buildings in such sort as the same should be no more fit for habitation, and the timber and wood thereof to be converted and disposed in such manner, as by the said Proclamation is required, as also to take order in all other the premises, That the said Decree should bee duly observed and kept, and if any should be obstinate, then to bind such Landlords as should obstinately and wilfully disobey the said Decree, to appear in this Honourable Court, to answer their contempt therein.  
And whereas the nine and twentieth of november, in the seventh year of the reign of King james of blessed memory, this honourable Court did decree and order; That the said Decree taken the twentieth day of October in the said fortieth year of the said late queen, should be presently, and from time to time thereafter more severely looked into, and put inexecution; And his majesties learned Counsel, and also the Lord Maior and Aldermen of London, together with all Iustices of Peace, and other his majesties Officers whatsoever, which the same may any way concern, were straitly charged and required, that they, and every of them, should from time to time thereafter diligently and strictly cause, and see the said Decree to be in all points duly observed and put in execution, and termely to make certificate to this honourable Court of their proceedings therein, and of such persons as they should find to offend in that behalf, whereupon on this Court did purpose to proceed against them for their contempts with very severe punishment. Since which time sundry other Proclamations, as well in the time of the said late King james, as of His majesty that now is, haue been published and set out against the said offences, and many exemplary sentences in this honourable Court haue been pronounced against offenders in that behalf, and many houses and buildings erected against the said Proclamation haue been demolished and pulled down. And yet nevertheless, such hath been the disobedience and contempt of great multitudes, aiming onely at their own gain, whatsoever peril or inconvenience might happen to the public, that the new buildings and dividing of Tenements haue daily more and more increased, and such numbers of poor dissolute and lewd persons are therein harboured, that in many parishes within the limits and precincts aforesaid, there are far more housholds and families that live by begging, and other unlawful ways, and by relief and alms of the parish, then are in the same parish to live by their own means and vocation; So as the burden is grown so heavy to many of the said parishes, that the wealthy are not able to relieve the poor in time of health, much less in time of sickness or Infection, as hath appeared in the late visitation of the plague, wherein such multitudes of those poor & miserable housholds haue been infected, and their necessities grown to that extremity, that the officers of the parish haue not been able to keep them within their houses, but the sick and infected haue gone among the whole, and great swarms of indigent and poor people, and many of them infected with the sickness, haue, maugre all authority and command of the officers, flocked in troops in the principal streets of the city and suburbs of London, whereby the Infection of the plague hath been much the more dispersed, not only in the said city and places adjacent; but into many other parts of the kingdom: Besides, it is apparently found out, that those multitudes of new buildings and divided Tenements, do draw into the said city, and parts adjoining, from all parts of the kingdom, great numbers( idle, loose and dissolute persons) who are harboured in those obscure and mean houses, and having no lawful trade or vocation, do beg, and also commit Pilferies, cozenages, and infinite disorders to enable them to pay their Landlords rents: And many of the Owners and Landlords or such Tenements, of purpose for raising of excessive rents to themselves out of their houses and Tenements, do let, and parcel them out to such idle, loose, and ill disposed persons, though they know them to bee of that condition, in regard they will give greater rents then a poor labouring man is able to do and use all shifts and unlawful means to pay it. All which enormities and many more, having, vpon survey lately taken, more evidently appeared then in former time.  
This Court for reformation thereof, doth now again order and decree, that the said several Decrees made in the fortieth year of the said late queen ELIZABETH, and the seventh year of the said late King james, with such additions and alterations as hereafter ensue, be severely and strictly executed. And forasmuch as it appeareth not onely by the said Decrees, but by the general resolution of all the reverend Iudges of the realm( whom His majesty out of His great care of the public, hath lately commanded to assemble) that the erecting of new buildings within the limits before mentioned, and the dividing of greater houses into petty tenements and habitations, and pestering and filling the same with Inmates, or with Inhabitants of such evil condition as aforesaid, is a most unsufferable annoyance against the public, and consequently is against the Common law of the realm; And that not only the said evil conditioned Inhabitants, but such by whom, or by whose means they are placed there, or who receive the rents of such Inhabitants, are guilty of a Common nuisance; and also that such Landlords or Owners of such houses or tenements, which haue or do receive the rents of such poor Inhabitants, may by law be taxed towards the relief of the poor of the said Parish, though they dwell out of the parish. This Court holdeth it meet, that since the offenders haue not taken warning by two such solemn Decrees made in this Court, they should now be proceeded against with more rigor and severity, and not bee suffered any longer to make unreasonable gain and profit to themselves by so great a wrong and general grievance. And therefore this Court doth order and decree, as well in execution of the said former Decrees, and pursuance of the said resolution of the Iudges, that where any houses formerly built within the limits aforesaid haue been divided into several habitations or dwellings, within the space of seven yeares now last past, contrary to any former Proclamation or Decree in that behalf, the same within the space of one year next ensuing shall be restored into their former estate, so as there shall be no more habitations or dwellings then were before the said divisions. And that all and every person and persons estated or interested in the same, either of inheritance or of any lesser estate, shall before the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord now next ensuing, vpon order or command of the Lord Maior, or some Iustice of peace of the city of London, or of the Alderman of the Ward, or his deputy,( if the said Tenements be within the said City or the liberties thereof) or of some Iustice of peace near to the place( if the said houses be out of the liberties of the city) enter into bond of a competent penalty, to observe and perform this order in that behalf; the said Bond to be taken in the names of some honest and sufficient persons of the parish where such Tenements are, to the use of the said parish.  
And it is further ordered and decreed, that where any houses, within the limits aforesaid, haue been erected or built within the said space of seven yeares, or being formerly erected or built, haue within the said space of seven yeares been divided, and are employed for the habitation of indigent and poor people, chargeable to the Parish wherein the said houses are, that in every such Case, all and every person and persons estated, or interested in the said houses or Tenements of estate of inheritance, or any lesser estate, and which haue received the rents, issues, and profits thereof, of, and from such poor Inhabitants, shall by virtue of this Order and Decree, be bound each of them respectively for their time, to restore and repay to the overseers of the poor of the Parish, wherein the said houses be, all such sums of money as haue been disbursed by the Parish, for the relief of the Inhabitants in the said houses in sickness or health, or for any other charge, wherewith such Parishes haue been burdened, since the feast of Pentecost last past, by reason of such Inhabitants; And shall also before the feast of the Ascension of our Lord now next ensuing, vpon order or command of the Lord Maior or some Iustice of Peace of the city, or the Alderman of the ward, or his deputy( if the Tenements bee within the city, or Liberties thereof) or of some Iustice of Peace near the place( if the said houses bee out of the Liberties of the city) enter into bond of a competent penalty, to bee taken in the name of some honest and sufficient men of the parish, where such Tenements bee, to the use of the said parish; to save and keep harmless the parishes wherein the said houses be, for, & during such their several estates or interests, respectively, from all charges and expenses, any way touching or concerning the maintaining, keeping, of relieving of the Inhabitants, which by, or under them, or any of them haue been, of shall be placed in the said houses, habitations, or dwellings.  
And that where any Inmates within the said space of seven yeares last past haue been placed in any houses or tenements, within the limits aforesaid, and are there continued, the same Inmates within the space of one year next ensuing, shall be removed by the persons interested and estated in the said houses or Tenements, having power by reason of their estates, to remove them so, as by the end of one year now next ensuing, there shall be no more families then one abiding in any of the said houses.  
And that all and every such person and persons, as are, or shall be estated, or interested in the said houses, as aforesaid, and to whom the rents, issues, or profits of the said houses, are, or shall be payable, or answerable, shall vpon order or command of the Lord Maior, or some Iustice of Peace of the city, or the Alderman of the ward, or his deputy( if the said Tenements bee within the city of London, or Liberties thereof) or of some Iustice of Peace near the place( if the said houses be out of the Liberties) enter into bond of a competent penalty( with sufficient sureties, if it shall be required) to perform this part of this present Order and Decree; such bond to bee taken in the name of some honest person or persons for the use of the parish.  
And it is further ordered and decreed, that all such persons, as are, or shall be estated, or interested in any houses divided above seven yeares last past, Contrary to any Proclamation or Decree of this Honourable Court in that behalf, of an estate of inheritance, or any lesser estate, which haue received, or hereafter shall receive the rents, or profits thereof from the inhabitants, shall at their peril take a course, if they haue power by reason of their estates so to do, that the same houses bee restored to their former condition and number of houses, and no more then were before the dividing thereof, witin the space of three yeares now next ensuing; And also that all such houses which haue been either built or divided, contrary to any such Proclamation or Decree as aforesaid, within the limits aforesaid, before, or above seven yeares last past, and are employed for the habitation of indigent and poor people, who are chargeable to the parish, where those houses are; That in every such Case all, and every person and persons estated or interested in the said houses or tenements of estate of Inheritance, or any lesser estate, and having received the rents, issues and profits thereof, of, and from the inhabitants, shall by virtue of this Order and Decree, every one for their several time, bee bound to restore and repay to the overseers of the poor of the parish wherein the said houses be, all such sums of money as haue been disbursed by the parish, for the relief of the Inhabitants of the said houses in sickness or health, or for any other charge wherewith such parishes haue been burdened, since the Feast of Pentecost last past, by reason of such Inhabitants, and shall also before the said Feast of the Ascension of our Lord God next ensuing, vpon order or command of the Lord Maior, or some Iustice of peace of the said city, or the Alderman of the Ward, or his deputy( if the said Tenenements be within the city of London, or liberties thereof) or of some Iustice of peace near the place( if the said houses be out of the liberties) enter into bond of a competent penalty, with sufficient sureties, if it shall be required, to save and keep harmless the parish from all charges and expenses, any way touching or concerning the maintaining, keeping, or relieving the Inhabitants, which by, or under them, or any of them haue been or shal be placed in the said houses, habitations or dwellings; The said Bond to bee taken in the name of some honest person or persons for the use of the parish.  
And it is further ordered, and decreed, that besides all the payments, charges and burdens aforesaid, to bee paid, done or performed by the said Landlords or Owners, in ease of the Parish, for, or in respect of their own Tenants, They, and every of them, shall contribute and give such like rateable and reasonable allowance with the said Parishioners, where such buildings or divisions are towards the finding and maintaining of the rest of the poor of the said parish, as should bee apportioned, taxed, assessed, or allotted for him, or them to pay, if he, or they were dwelling in the said parish, and were not charged towards the relief or maintenance of his, or their own under tenants, as is aforesaid.  
And this Court doth further Order and Decree, that if any person or persons shall hereafter new build, divide any Tenements within the limits aforesaid, contrary to this Decree, or the said former Decrees, made in this Court, or the several Proclamations heretofore published in that behalf, or shall place any such poor, or indigent people in any such Tenements heretofore built or divided, or hereafter to be built or divided, or receive any Inmates into the same, that then the person, or persons so offending shall bee by order or command of the Lord Maior, or some Iustice of peace of the said city of London, or the Alderman of the Ward, or his Deputy,( if the Tenements shall happen to be within the said city, or the liberties thereof) or of some Iustice of peace near the place( if the Tenements shall bee without the liberties) enter into bond of a competent penalty, with sureties to some honest person or persons, to the use of the parish in which the Tenements shall be, within one month next after the date of such Bond, to pull down such new erected Tenements, or to reform or restore such divided Tenements to their former condition, or to remove such indigent people and Inmates placed therein, as the case shall happen to bee. And that all and every person and persons, that shall hereafter receive any Rents, Issues, or profits, of or from any such poor or indigent people inhabiting in any such Tenement heretofore built or divided, or hereafter to bee built or divided, shall bear, and pay all charges and expenses which the Parish shall sustain or bee put to, for, or by reason of any such poor and indigent people inhabiting within the Parish, and shall likewise bee ranted and assessed to pay, and are hereby also ordered and decreed to pay their rateable share and proportion, with the Inhabitants of the parish, for and towards the relief of the poor of such parish, as if the person or persons receiving rents or profits from such poor and indigent Inhabitants were dwelling within the parish.  
And it is further ordered, that if any person or persons, shall refuse or make default to satisfy or pay any the payments or charges aforesaid, or to perform any part of this Order, That then process of Attachment out of this Court shall be awarded against him or them, with such further process of contempt, and imprisonment, and are usual against the breakers or contemners of the Decrees or Orders of this Court, and before his enlargement shall give security by bond as aforesaid, and satisfy and pay all such sums of money, as he or they should or ought to pay, with double costs to the prosecutor or prosecutors, for all the charges they shall sustain in prosecution of the said contempts.